This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy was my first dog and he thought the garden was his, even though I did all the work. But Skippy always stood by me and was a great friend. Now Suzie and Charley follow in his footsteps and garden with me. We're located near Boston (USDA zone 6A). I have a community plot, a backyard vegetable garden, fruit trees and berry bushes, chickens and bees. I use sustainable organic methods and do my best to grow all of my family's vegetables myself.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

what to do with zucchini (and other summer squashes)

My summer squash are coming in so fast I thought I'd get a list of ideas together of things to do with it.

For a perfect summer meal I make angel hair zucchini noodles with a spiral slicer however a vegetable peeler will do the job too. I toss the noodles in pesto and y voila! You don't even have to fire up the stove!

I'm still waiting for my first zuc after they kept rotting. I think two are setting now so I am anticipation a couple soon. I saw an Italian dish similar to your fried zucchini suggestion, it is zuc's chopped into match sticks, lightly dredged and fried and then top with a squeeze of lemon and salt. I also want to try zucchini scones if I can find a good recipe. I agree with Michelle, the chile/honey/lime grilled zuc sounds great. I will be give that a try!

Fantastic, I have been ploughing through cookery books to find recipes for zukes/courgettes. I looked up the Marion Morash book you refer to, it is a fortune to buy £175 was the best of price in 3 online sellers I looked at. I guess it is out of print or something really special!Marian(LondonUK)

Thanks for the great ideas! I also like to keep a bunch of grilled ones in the fridge and throw them on sandwiches with hummus or cream cheese or goat cheese along with whatever else I pull out of the garden that goes with it-herbs, cukes, tomatoes, anything! I do the same thing with eggs and make veggie frittata's a lot. And like Phil and Melinda said-my local foodbank is always grateful for what we can't use!

yum, yum. I think there are almost as many recipes for zucchini as there are zucchini in my garden (j/k)I am posting recipes at my blog, too, in honor of National Leave a Zucchini on your Neighbor's Porch day, which is Saturday, August 8th.

I slow roast vegetables that I am sure I cannot consume right away. I cut them up, zucchini, onions, eggplant, tomato with garlic and olive oil coated. Add rosemary, a little salt. Roast them at 250 for a few hours, turning every 30 min or so. I have great roasted vegetables I freeze and use later.

So sad, squash borers just devastated all of my squash and zuchini. I only got to harvest two zuccinis before the plants were officially decimated. Do you do anything in paticular to keep them away. I'm thinking next year I may need to use Sevin during the time that the borer eggs hatch.

I'd love vegetable cookbooks. Or you could get them, try out the recipes and invite me up to eat them.

I just spoke with the Globe who will come watch me make my squash bread soon. They want to see the pumpkin version. I'm nervous to have someone watch me cook!

buckeye,

Make sure to rotate the location of squashes - grow them somewhere else next year. Also spray the stems very regularly starting early in season (June) with a spray that says its effective against stem borers. Malathion is recommended. Here's a good link from Cornell. They also recommend nematode injections. Good luck. A very tough problem to treat.

Thought I would mention, as we have been making the cake for over 20 years, it is wonderful baked in a bundt pan for 1 hour, 15 minutes, cooled and then frosted...try it...beats the heck out of 3 layers!